Well, I finally got my loader mounts fixed. Paid a welder to repair the wallowed out bolts (only the left side had an issue) that mount to the front casting (that the axle attaches to). He welded a grade 5 coupling nut into the lower hole (after hollowing it out more). I think I had it tapped out to a fine thread pitch 7/8 or 1 inch diameter hole (sorry, can't remember now). Anyhow, he re-tapped the upper hole to a coarse pitch thread and thought it would be good. I got the nuts and bolts at MSC (msc-direct.com). Great service, ok price. Delivery was $15 to my door on Monday, ordered on Friday at 5 pm.
Next I welded extensions forward to mounting pads located roughly under the radiator. I couldn't go straight forward due to the front wheel angle (caused by the articulation of the Supersteer).
Attached are pictures of the raw stock (1/2" x 5" bar stock), and a blank I made out of scrap wood. I ended up not following the bevel in the wood to increase the welded surface area. The other pics are various angles of the finished project. The loader mount is made of a combination of 1/2 inch and 1 inch material. I wanted to make the mount extensions out of 1 inch stock, but decided that 1/2 inch should be enough load sharing (besides, should I take the whole load up front, or should this be sharing the load?!). I didn't spend a lot of time purtying up the welds as I felt that some of the ugly was supportive. Used Offic-ial NH gray paint. Which doesn't match the original very well (nor did it on my wife's 1 year old LS125 minsteer).
Unless the repair fails, I am pretty happy with how it worked out. I did most of the work by myself (that #$%^%$!! mount is heavy), though at the final fitting (now the mount had two more bolts and had the extension on it) I had a buddy help me. I used a long arm floor jack to hold the mount up. I also had to weld a crack in the left mount in an area hidden by the cab (it was easy). The front casting is made of cast steel versus cast iron. The welder tried to show me how the sparks for one are orange, while the other was yellow. I couldn't see it.
I torqued the bolts to 325 or 350 pounds/foot. I think that the rating was for higher, but I didn't want to strip out the repaired bolt holes (yes, l am leary). That took two of us (not enough lead in my a**).
The only real concern I had along the way was when I jacked the cab up a bit to get to the bolts on the transmission.
So, keep those bolts torqued! Much easier that way!
